Har Mar Superstar (aka Sean Tillmann) is back with Best Summer Ever. The album will be available April 15, 2016 on Cult Records, LLC... but you can expect to hear preview of the new songs on this upcoming show on Wednesday
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Har Mar Superstar’s Best Summer Ever is about to end at his homecoming gig this Black Friday, November 25th. We caught the band in April 2016 and wrote, “Har Mar Superstar is a staple in the Minnesota music scene. Even though he moved away for a couple of years, we claimed him as ours. He announced earlier this week that he was moving back and will be calling Minnesota his home again. Little did he know, he really never left as far as his fans were concerned.”

The singer’s latest album Best Summer Ever is out now.

Tickle Torture and Ggoolldd to open. Be sure to show up early to catch Ggoolldd... we caught them in October 2016 and they were truly excellent: “Milwaukee’s Ggoolldd (Margaret Butler, Nick Ziemann, Mark Stewart, Thomas Gilbert, and Nick Schubert) was up next. Singer and dramatic dancer Margaret Butler announced the band’s name, followed by a joke, “It sounds just like how it’s spelled.”... Musically, the band like a fun electro/pop dance party. Most of their set included songs from their debut Gold+ album... but their latest single ‘Undercovers’ came out October 7, 2016.”

What are you doing on Black Friday? Head over to the 7th Street Entry to check out Denver’s The Yawpers is currently on tour in support of their new album American Man (Bloodshot Records). They normally headline, but for these shows, local The4onthefloor (featuring singer Gabe Douglas) will be closing out both the Minneapolis and St Paul show.

For the Turf Club show, in addition to The Yawpers, they will also include a third opening band: The Coax.

We caught New York’s Moon Hooch on their very first Minneapolis appearance in 2013, when they were “discovered” by They Might Be Giants. TMBG loved their explosive horns-and-percussion sound that they asked them to open for them on their 2013 tour.

Now with a real studio album Red Sky, the trio (Mike Wilbur on horns, Wenzl McGowen on horns, and James Muschler on drums) will be headlining the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis this Sunday, October 16th.

Massachusetts’ Honeycomb to open. When I saw their band’s name, I just instantly started singing “Honeycomb’s big, yeah yeah yeah, they’re not small, no no no...”

Australia’s Sticky Fingers will be in town at the 7th Street Entry on October 16th, touring in support of their sophomore album Land of Pleasure. The record debuted at #3 on the ARIA charts, stormed the AIR Independent Album Chart at #1, was Triple J feature album with three tracks making it into the 2015 Hottest 100 and ‘Gold Snafu’ making it to the Top 20.

The band is massive in their home country, selling out a March Australian tour (without even announcing the tour).

... Also, we are pretty sure that the band took their name from the iconic Sticky Fingers album by the Rolling Stones.

UPDATE: THIS SHOW HAS BEEN POSTPONED

"Due to an unforeseen scheduling issue with Sticky Fingers, we need to postpone our shows in Minneapolis and Chicago next week. We are sorry to do this and will have new dates announced soon to follow these shows up."

Oakland’s Day Wave is currently on their Hard to Read tour, stopping by Minneapolis’ 7th Street Entry on Friday, May 6th.

Sleeping Jesus

Winona’s Sleeping Jesus started the show. Thankfully, it wasn’t religious music, as the “Alaskan Farmer” band’s name might imply. The band is led by singer/songwriter Nick Elstad, with Ross on bass, Tim (?) on drums, and Victor on guitars.

They played everything off their Perennial EP and ending with a couple of new songs (‘Ghetto Blasters’ and ‘Goddess’) on their 25-min set (they started a little late).

Jack and The Coax

Next up was local Jack and The Coax, played almost their entire EP Whiskey Kids (‘Addiction’, ‘Couple of Devils’, ‘La De Da’), which they recorded at McNally Smith College of Music in Spring 2015. Making up the rest of their set were some “new [Jeff] Kruse tunes” like ‘Here To Stay’ and ‘Honey’.

The band seemed to have some good local support from fans, friends, and family, and they have a “jammy” sound to them, so many of their songs sounded like they’ve been extended, especially with saxophone added to their live set. Even though they started earlier than advertised, I got a feeling that their 40+ minute set was not enough for this band.

Jackson Phillips

Closing out the show was Day Wave, led by band leader Jackson Phillips. The band is fairly new, only forming in 2015 with their debut EP Head Case... but already there’s some great buzz, thanks to online streaming radio Apple Music and word of mouth. In fact, Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus randomly heard one of their songs and instantly became a massive fan.

After creating more buzz from SXSW 2016, showcasing their Hard to Read album tour, the band finally made it to Minneapolis on Friday night.

Seeing them play at the tiny 7th Street Entry venue, I felt their music had a nice breeze to them, and is really the perfect soundtrack to this Summer. Don’t believe me? Head over to Soundcloud and hear some samples for yourself.

As you can see from their setlist, they basically played almost everything they’ve published on their two EPs (Hard to Read and Head Case) and throwing in some oddies and one cover song (New Order’s ‘Ceremony’). They ended their 45-min set with ‘We Try But We Don't Fit In’, a dreamy shoegazing fuzzy number.

Fresh off their tour with Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, Louisiana’s Seratones will be stopping by the Turf Club in St Paul this Friday. The date was originally not listed on their tour poster, so it may have been added semi-recently.

The tour is in support of their debut album Get Gone, which is coming out also on May 6th via Fat Possum Records.

Fans of Janis Joplin and Mavis Staples may want to stop in to check out their frontwoman A.J. Haynes.

Are you going to Wizard World Minneapolis this year? If you are, your wristband will allow you free entrance to their after party on Friday night at their “Creator Pro AM: Drink & Draw” event from 8:30 to 10pm (details listed on wizardworld.com).

Of course, you may recall that Peelander-Z was kicked off the stage because the venue had another event that same night.

According to thepourhousempls.com they have a band playing this same name: The Hook Up. Not sure if it will conflict with the Drink & Draw thing... but details below.

8:30 – 10:00PM CREATOR PRO AM: DRINK & DRAW
All artist and writers are invited to come and compete in this live drawing and writing competition! You bring the creativity and we will take care of the rest! Scenarios and scenes will be described to the artist and writers, where you will have 1 hour to compete. Stay through to the end where one writer and one artist will be selected to win amazing prizes! Including prizes from Vantage:Inhouse Productions and U Cre-8 Comics. FREE with your Wizard World wristband, 18+ over until 10pm 21+ over after 10pm.
Located at: The Pourhouse, 10 S 5th St, Minneapolis, MN 55402.
Hosted by Victor Dandridge

Music fans might recognize Shaun Fleming as the drummer for psych-rockers Foxygen. As Diane Coffee, however, Fleming transforms into a flamboyant starchild, the master and commander of all things weird and beautiful, a rightful bearer of the David Bowie torch. Under the Diane Coffee moniker, Fleming has released two delicious slices of spacey, soulful rock ‘n roll: 2013’s My Friend Fish and last year’s Everybody’s a Good Dog (which was in my top 5 albums of 2015!) Need some examples of his genius? Look no further than Fish’s slinky “WWWoman” and Dog’s hip-shaking “Mayflower.” I was lucky enough to catch the band last September when they opened for Jack & the Coax at the Turf Club and they were extraordinary. Come spend Valentine’s Day at the Entry with someone who will make sweet love to your ear holes!

Jack and the Coax to open. The local band has a month-long residency at the Nomad World Pub every Thursday.

Michigan’s Chris Bathgate will be in town on a brief Midwest tour in support of his latest EP Old Factory (which came out yesterday, February 5, 2016).

The EP was recorded at High Bias studios by Chris Koltay in Detroit, except for drums on “Calvary”, recorded at Marigny Studios by Matt Aguiluz in New Orleans and strings recorded at Back Seat Productions by Chris Bathgate in Ann Arbor.

Opener Paul Spring, who we previously caught in October 2015 and wrote, “Fans who arrived early to the show got to enjoy two fantastic openers: Paul Spring and Joan Shelley. Spring, originally hailing from St. Cloud, but currently based in Minneapolis, was accompanied by Charlie on upright bass and the two played a great folky set consisting of many tracks off of Spring’s newly released album Towards a Center (produced by Dap-Kings drummer Homer Steinweiss - how cool is that?).”